What makes Wheeler Lipes such an interesting fellow is the actions he took while 120 feet below the surface of the South China Sea. He performed an emergency appendectomy.

Wheeler had witnessed an appendectomy before and was able to diagnose the sailors ailment properly.

He improvised tools like bent spoons for retractors and a strainer with cloth soaked in ether for anesthesia. He also sterilized with alcohol that was used as the propellant of the torpedoes. Under orders by his captain he and an assistant setup a operating table in the galley but the patient Darrel Dean Rector was too tall so they had to put his feet into cabinet drawers. They soaked pajamas in alcohol to use as operating gowns and as surgical dressings.